I am 44 years old now. All my life I have been thrift as I am not from a well off family and I struggled financially. However I do love cars, and I always wanted a 2 door 1980s rwd car. From the time I started working, which was at 21 years old, I drove my dads car and kept driving it for 20 years , from 1997 till 2017.
My dads car was a cheap 4 door econobox or ****box as some people would say, nothing special.
Back in 2012 I switched jobs and finally had better pay, so in 2015 I started searching for my retro JDM car. The plan is to get a good condition one so there will be minimal work involved, especially concerning body rust. Indeed I found a recently imported 1989 Toyota Soarer. I thought out of a plan to keep it in great shape till I retire , then sell it at that time, which should be when I am 55 to 60 years old. I dont think I will have the energy to maintain it when I retire, and I certainly dont want my kids to deal with disposing it if I should pass on not long after I retire.
I can keep it in good shape as its not a daily and I can keep it out of the rain and sunlight for most of the year, yes its a weekend car.
I have owned the car for 3 years now, and several days ago while it was parked in a mall, some one took photos of it on facebook, and it generated a lot of interest. My friend alerted me to this post and I had a look.
As usual some people asked is it for sale.
I opened my big mouth and one guy made me a very good offer on it. I feel that I am unlikely to get such an offer in the future, if I go ahead with my ownership as per my initial plan, When it comes time to selling it at the time, it is unlikely for me to get such a price, as I think only this guy is willing to pay this much for it now, because in my country, to import a classic car it must be 35 years old, and I got it before the rules were changed from 25 years old to 35 years old.
So the conundrum is, I sell the car soon, gain a handsome profit which I could add to my retirement fund, or keep it and enjoy the experience while I still am living. While I do enjoy the car a lot, I also treasure my financial independence. I plan to run small CNC business on the side soon, and together with my retirement fund it should help to keep me and my wife afloat in our golden years.
If you are a car guy in my situation, what would you do?
My dads car was a cheap 4 door econobox or ****box as some people would say, nothing special.
Back in 2012 I switched jobs and finally had better pay, so in 2015 I started searching for my retro JDM car. The plan is to get a good condition one so there will be minimal work involved, especially concerning body rust. Indeed I found a recently imported 1989 Toyota Soarer. I thought out of a plan to keep it in great shape till I retire , then sell it at that time, which should be when I am 55 to 60 years old. I dont think I will have the energy to maintain it when I retire, and I certainly dont want my kids to deal with disposing it if I should pass on not long after I retire.
I can keep it in good shape as its not a daily and I can keep it out of the rain and sunlight for most of the year, yes its a weekend car.
I have owned the car for 3 years now, and several days ago while it was parked in a mall, some one took photos of it on facebook, and it generated a lot of interest. My friend alerted me to this post and I had a look.
As usual some people asked is it for sale.
I opened my big mouth and one guy made me a very good offer on it. I feel that I am unlikely to get such an offer in the future, if I go ahead with my ownership as per my initial plan, When it comes time to selling it at the time, it is unlikely for me to get such a price, as I think only this guy is willing to pay this much for it now, because in my country, to import a classic car it must be 35 years old, and I got it before the rules were changed from 25 years old to 35 years old.
So the conundrum is, I sell the car soon, gain a handsome profit which I could add to my retirement fund, or keep it and enjoy the experience while I still am living. While I do enjoy the car a lot, I also treasure my financial independence. I plan to run small CNC business on the side soon, and together with my retirement fund it should help to keep me and my wife afloat in our golden years.
If you are a car guy in my situation, what would you do?
